Perpendicular write heads are well known in the art. For example, U.S. Pat. RE 33,949 granted to Mallary et al. describes a vertical recording arrangement in which a downstream magnetic shield is integrally formed with a write pole section having a tip to make up the magnetic recording head. This patent is incorporated by reference herein in its entirety. Mallary states that the face of his shield is designed to be many times as large as the face of the write pole section. Hence Mallary's shield appears to serve as a return path for the magnetic flux. In contrast, a single pole write head design uses a return path pole that is located far away, while using a trailing edge adjacent to the single pole to intercept magnetic flux fringing from the single pole. See for example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,920,449 granted to Tagawa that is also incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.
It is possible to fly longitudinal heads backwards to write perpendicular media. Such heads may have a notched pole tip. However, there appears to be no known description of how a notched trailing shield is to be fabricated for a perpendicular write head as discussed below.